Requirements for protection of domain names defined

Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan defined requirements for protection of domain names within the space of Kazakhstani Internet segment. Now, websites with such registered domain names as .KZ and .ҚАЗ are allocated in the space of Kazakhstani Internet segment, i.e. in hardware and software facilities located on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan.         

The requirement was resulted from work performed under tasks set forth by the Head of State within provision of “digital soverengity” mentioned in the message. Under the Law “On New Digital Technologies”, adjustment was approved on June 25, 2020 which enabled defining requirements for protection of domain names within the space of Kazakhstani Internet segment.  

Since the adjustment approval, work began on its technical implementation. Thus, under the service for the Internet space monitoring, the domestic “WebTotem” system detected about 45000 domain names violating the above requirement.  

Relevant notifications were sent to “Kazakhstan Network Information Center” as well as to registrars and domain name owners so that they can verify or refute the violation until November 30, 2020.  

“Websites with Kazakhstani domain names should be allocated in local data centers and local IT developers should be engaged. Domestic businessmen, in their turn, should use local resources and production resources as much as possible, money should be invested into the country, not be spent outside the country in pursuit of fictitious cheapness of service abroad.   

If an owner refuses to transfer a website from a Kazakhstani domain name, it will be enough just to change a website name. For example, website named info.kz can be changed to info.kz.com or info.kz.org. It should be noted that the work done will not affect regular users and will remain almost invisible for them” commented Askhat Orazbek, Vice Minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the RK.

The requirement will enable creating a multiplicative effect in the economy, such as more jobs in ICT field, utilization of surplus electricity, reduction of external Internet traffic, communication operators will be able to invest more in the development of local communication networks and improve the quality of services delivered.